If you look below you will see the new all time Wilson world record for the biggest mountain goat ever shot ( keep in mind it is the only mountain goat shot by a Wilson) Exibit A:
The Hunt is on!
So it all began back in April when Brandon found out that he drew a once in a life time mountain goat hunt! He has been so excited for months to finally go on this hunt, unfortunately as in my previous posts he does have the Wilson dark cloud over his head and it was just a few weeks before this hunt that he tore his ACL, and only two and a half weeks before the hunt that he had the surgery to repair his knee.... talk about bad timing! But his luck was good enough to draw the tag and be successful the opening morning of the hunt!
Here is a picture of the goat still alive, this is a picture of it through the spotting scope:
This is were Brandon was sitting when he shot the goat. If it makes any of you feel better, Brandon only needed one shot and the goat was down... Thats my boy! So what i mean by that he is an ethical hunter! Brandon knew I was bummed that i wasn't there so lucky for me they had phone service from where he had shot it and Brock had called me and had me on the phone as Brandon took his shot.
Poor Brandon was in so much pain throughout this hunt. He called me before he had shot the goat to get my opinion on which one he should shoot and I told him he should wait till I could be up there with him and he said there is no way he could get back up there again because of how bad his knee was hurting him... I felt so bad. (He was so nice to try to include me even though I wasn't up there with him) These are some pictures of him making his way down the mountain to the goat after he had shot it. (check out the walking sticks he was using for crutches) He had to come down the mountain on his butt and his pants were so torn up after! ouch!
It takes a lot of hard work to skin a goat and pack it out. They had to do a full skin out because Brandon wanted to do a full body mount, so these boys worked extra hard! Thanks a ton to Brock and Byron for helping Brandon in this hunt, there is no way he could do it alone! Sorry if these next pictures are too graphic for some of you.
This picture is kind of funny.... Brandon didn't get home until late so we had to find a place to keep the goat cold and fresh through the night because we couldn't get it to the taxidermist until the next day. What a great idea the boys had.... They could fit it in their parents extra fridge. ( I still don't think Brandon's mom knows about this, but now she will) Debbie you might want to clean that ;)
Since I had to work and was unable to go on the hunt, I had to find something to do while Brandon was up on the mountain packing out the goat. I had the greatest plan: Make a huge sign! I had to find some way to welcome Brandon and Billy home, ha ha ha you should have seen Brandon's face when he saw this sign, it was so funny! The best part was that we had left it up through the night and since we live in windy Spanish Fork, It blew off in the night and we could not find it any where the next morning! Sorry to what ever neighbor it was that had to unwrap their house the next morning.
Here is the crew: Yep just the three of them. When everyone first found out Brandon had drawn this tag he had a ton of people that were willing to go, but once it came down to the hunt these are the two who stuck with him, and thank goodness, Brandon definitely needed the help, this is a hard hunt to do. You are hiking and shooting on cliffs, (because for some reason the goats can't find anywhere better to call home?!?!) So thanks so much to Brock and Byron for putting in your time and effort to help Brandon we appreciate it a lot! I have to let all of you know how excited I was for Brandon too, First of all who can say that they have even shot a mountain goat or even been on a goat hunt? Then, who can say they have been up hiking cliffs and shot a mountain goat with a torn ACL? Not many or even any at all, so it may not be a world record but it meant so much for Brandon to accomplish this! Nice Job hubby! I am proud of your sweet hunting capabilities! ha ha ha
